Cinnymun

Recently I've been on a journey for the perfect recipe of that most ethereal of all breakfast delights, the cinnamon roll. Mine is a long and lonely journey, full of pain, trials, and enough saturated fat to kill an elephant. I have not yet reached my destination. Nevertheless, I'm am at this point fairly happy about my point on the journey. Since I've received a few requests for the recipe I use as of this moment, I thought this would be a good place to post it.

• 1 cup warm milk (2% or, better yet, whole; skim won't work)
  
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I've been meaning to experiment with both bread flour and cake flour, but haven't yet had the opportunity)
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (instant yeast is better, if you can find it)
  

• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon (the fresher the better)
• pinch salt
  
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

Heat the milk to ~110 degrees, and bloom the yeast in it for 10-15 minutes, or until all the yeast is dissolved (if you're using instant yeast, skip this). Whip the eggs lightly with the whisk attachment in a stand mixer, then slowly drizzle in the melted butter, keeping the mixer moving. Mix in the sugar and salt. Next, drizzle in the milk/yeast mixture until combined. SIFT THE FLOUR. Mix in about two cups of the SIFTED flour to the batter until just combined (lumps are okay). Remove the whisk attachment and attach the dough hook (here's where not having a stand mixer would suck; this would all have to be done by hand). Add the remaining flour (did I mention it should be sifted?) about a half cup at a time, letting each batch be fully integrated before adding the next and occasionally stopping to remove the dough that climbs up the hook (spray the hook with a little non-stick spray to help prevent this). Continue adding flour until the dough reaches a consistency that is soft and moist but not really very sticky (this may not take all the flour), then knead on the low setting for about five more minutes.

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased (I like non-stick spray again) glass or metal bowl, big enough to contain a much larger dough ball than the one you're inserting. Let rise in a warm, preferably moist place for 1-2 hours or until at least doubled in size. If you're at a loss for such a place, pour a pot of boiling water poured into a pyrex dish and place it in the bottom rack or floor of your oven, and place the bowl of dough above it. With the oven door closed, this should be sufficient.

Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together with a fork. When the dough is risen (it is risen, indeed!), turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knuckle it for a bit to evenly distribute the gas. Let rest for five minutes and then roll into a roughly 12"by18" rectangle. Use a basting brush to brush on the melted butter, then lightly sprinkle the sugar/cinnamon mixture all over the dough, but leave about a half inch to an inch on one of the longer sides unadorned. Lightly press it down into the dough.

Now it's time to roll. Starting at the long end that actually has cinnamon stuff on it, roll the dough as tightly as possible toward the other end. Fingertips are better than palms for this, they aren't as hot. Once you reach the unadorned end, pull it up and over to finish off the roll, then lightly crimp it to attach the end. Using a long serrated knife, remove those unsightly ends and then cut the dough roll into 12 equal portions. Transfer these to a greased 13"x9" pyrex baking dish, cover with Saran wrap, and store in the refrigerator overnight. That's right, you do all the work on these the night before; and the bench proofing they do in the refrigerator overnight is an important step!

When morning comes, it's time to (finally) bake the rolls. Two ways to do this:

1. Easy method: start the rolls in a cold oven. Turn to 350 degrees and bake for ~45 min or until lightly golden brown and cooked through.
2. Better method: put rolls in cold oven along with a pan of boiling water (same as the first rise) for 30 min. Take everything out, set oven to 350, and when pre-heated, pop the rolls back in and bake for 30 min or until, well, golden brown and delicious.

While the rolls are cooling a bit (or if you're impatient, like me, while they're still in the oven), make the cream cheese icing. What, did you think I'd forgotten? I'm still looking for the perfect recipe, but this one is the best I've found so far. I stay at the low end of the sugar range for more tangy cream cheese goodness.

That's it. Not perfect, at least not to my taste, but pretty damn good. Let me know if you try it out!